Parents bash principals yet want respect?

Parents want schools to teach their kids respect, yet they’re the ones laying into principals in a shameful lack of the very same social skill. It’s time to expel the parents ruining school life for everyone, writes Kylie Lang.

THIS doesn’t add up: parents want schools to teach their kids respect, yet they’re the ones laying into principals in a shameful lack of the very same social skill.

How can educators win amid such a stark contradiction?

School principals are suffering violent attacks at rising levels

Dad threatens to kill kid’s school principal

Expel aggro parents, I say, and let teachers get on with teaching.

Alarming as it is to read, and not for the first time, that principals are being abused and assaulted by hot-headed parents and their ill-disciplined children, there is little chance of improving the situation when parents refuse to take responsibility for their behaviour.

Role modelling 101 would suggest the only way is downhill, fast.

Almost half of all school principals were threatened with violence last year and one-third physically attacked, according to the annual Australian Principal Occupational Health, Safety and Wellbeing survey.

Throw in an otherwise demanding workload and it’s no wonder they’re reportedly being driven to drink.

But get this: just a week before this survey came to light, another pointed to a fresh set of concerns.

More than half of adults canvassed in Monash University’s Public Opinions on Australian Schools and Schooling report said the most important aspect of education was students being respectful to teachers and peers (54.6%).

This came in second after basic literacy and numeracy (69.8%) and just ahead of teachers being of high quality (54.5%).

In one of the first real barometers of public sentiment around schooling, more than 2000 adults supported the introduction of “life skills”, which also included job preparation.

Try abusing people in an interview situation and see how successful you are at getting the position.

Try assaulting people in the workplace and expect to be marched out the door.

The only way schools will have any hope of meeting the broader expectations of a civilised community is if parents step up and become part of the solution.

Mums and Dads who act like jerks will never balance the equation and deliver the positive outcomes that students and educators deserve.

Respect begins in the home. Full stop.